If you decide to fight fleas in the apartment and at the same time think that by simply spraying the room, for example, with Dichlorvos or some similar remedy, you will immediately get rid of the parasites - well, you will have to disappoint. In most cases, such a simplified approach gives only a temporary result, and after a week or two, fleas reappear in the apartment. So before you run to the store for insect repellant, sit back and learn more about the problem first so you can get rid of fleas once and for all.
So, first of all, it is necessary to understand that the fight against fleas in the apartment should be comprehensive. In doing so, you need to pay attention to the following points:
- It is necessary to destroy fleas in the room itself.
- Get rid of fleas in pets (if any).
- Destroy flea larvae in the apartment (many do not even know that they even exist in nature, not to mention how they look and where to look for them).
Fleas, despite their tiny size and apparent simplicity, have a fairly complex life cycle, and at different stages of development, adults and flea larvae live separately from each other. Accordingly, the fight against fleas in the apartment should take place taking into account their biology in order to be quick and successful.
So, for example, adult fleas stay mostly in secluded places closer to their prey.You should look for them under the bedding on which the pet sleeps, near the beds behind the baseboards or under the parquet, in things in the closet, in the furniture - where they will probably not be disturbed.
They do not feed on anything but the blood of animals and humans, and therefore they always try to hide where they can easily get to any warm-blooded living creature.
On a note
Even if there are no pets in the apartment, fleas can feel comfortable in it, attacking only humans. Ground floor apartments are often infested with basement fleas that feed mainly on rats (so-called basement fleas). Therefore, the absence of pets in the room is not a guarantee of the absence of fleas in it.
The larvae of fleas usually live where they can easily find food for themselves - various garbage, rotting parts of plants, excrement of adult fleas with the remains of undigested blood. They are more often found in animal trays, in bedding in cages and aquariums in hamsters and rats, in flower pots, and also in garbage heaps on balconies.
Review
“We actually had a funny case. Fleas were poisoned three times in two months, and in detail, with the processing of the dog and throwing out its rug, even the linoleum on the balcony was raised. And they still turn up! And what would you think? It turns out that they bred in a cage with rats at the daughter's, and in the nest box itself, because the litter in the cage itself was constantly changing. And when the nest box was opened and all the supplies and the nest itself were shaken out, there were flea larvae visible, invisible ... "
Oleg, Tiraspol
Finally, flea pupae, thanks to their protective shell, are able to survive the treatment of an apartment with some insecticides. And even after a successful fight against adult fleas and their larvae in the apartment, new insects can be hatched from the pupae in the future, which then will give rise to a new population of parasites in the room.
On a note
Different types of fleas can be found in apartments, which can only be distinguished from each other by a specialist. At the same time, for example, dog fleas easily attack cats, rat fleas attack dogs, and vice versa. This means that, for example, you need to deal with cat fleas in an apartment using the same methods that are used to poison fleas in general. Fortunately, all the developed methods and control measures involve the impact on all types of fleas, and almost always on other unwanted insects in the apartment (cockroaches, bedbugs).
We remove insects with the help of special means
Almost all modern insecticides are much more effective and convenient to use than traditional folk remedies. The composition of modern preparations includes substances that have a toxic effect on insects, but are relatively non-toxic to humans and warm-blooded animals.
Only in rare cases, such insecticides can cause side effects, but if the rules for their use are followed, the risk of a possible negative effect can be minimized.
You need to deal with indoor fleas quickly and in an organized manner. Breaks between successive steps when processing the premises can give individual parasites a chance to survive and lead to the fact that you will have to fight fleas in the apartment again.
As a rule, the destruction of parasites in the room takes several hours.In case of severe contamination of the premises, repeated preventive treatment may be required, but the need for it usually arises only in rare cases.
Before you fight fleas in an apartment, you must definitely do two things:
- Find out how the parasites got into the house, and take measures to block such a path of their entry
- If there are pets in the apartment, be sure to rid them of fleas and protect them from insects at least until the fleas are removed from the premises. You can read about how to deal with fleas in pets in the relevant articles on our website, in the "Fleas in animals" section. Here we only note that to protect the pet, anti-flea collars, drops on the withers and sprays should be used that provide protection for at least a few days.
After that, you should proceed to the actual processing of the apartment from fleas, before making sure that after processing they will not penetrate it again (for example, if the basement of an apartment building is infested with fleas, then processing only one apartment may not give the desired effect - you need to process it yourself basement).
We block the entry of fleas into the room
As a rule, fleas enter the room in two ways:
- On the fur of pets from the street.
- Independently through ventilation or through windows and doors from basements and courtyards.
Very rarely, a flea can be on a person’s clothes or in things brought into the room.
To prevent infestation of the apartment with fleas from pets, in the spring-summer season, you should constantly put on anti-flea collars on them - this will protect pets from jumping fleas on their fur.
To prevent the penetration of fleas from the street or other infected premises, sections from insect pests (sections from moths are suitable) or bunches of wormwood and tansy should be placed in the ventilation ducts.
Fleas often jump on clothes when hunting from fox and badger holes, as well as when they are near animals on the street in the city. If you notice this, clothes should be shaken out right on the street, without going into the apartment in it.
Choosing a flea control
Practice shows that the most reliable, fastest and easiest way to deal with fleas is in the form of aerosols, as well as using concentrates for dilution and subsequent spraying. The main advantage of such aerosols and sprays is the ability to penetrate into narrow cracks and various hard-to-reach places.
The most well-known flea remedies include:
- Get microencapsulated preparation (sold as a concentrate). The composition of the drug includes a highly effective insecticide chlorpyrifos contact action. After processing the apartment, it is advisable not to carry out a total cleaning, but to wash only those surfaces with which residents come into contact most often.
- The executioner drug, which is also quite effective against bedbugs and linen lice. Requires dilution in a certain concentration. To process a two-room apartment, you will need to buy about 20 bottles, the cost of which will be about 1,400 rubles.
- Raptor from crawling insects - convenient to use, as it is sold ready-made in aerosol cans and has a slight smell. Slightly inferior in effectiveness to previous remedies, but widely available and quite suitable for use in slightly contaminated apartments.
- Cucaracha and Tetrix are two related products that are considered professional insecticides. Very effective, but have an unpleasant and long-lasting odor. Good for processing large basements and balconies. A 50 ml bottle of each of them is enough to treat an area of 100 square meters. m.
Dusts (as various insecticidal powders are called today) are especially effective in combating flea larvae. Modern versions of Dichlorvos - Dichlorvos-Neo, Dichlorvos Max, etc. - are also quite effective and practically odorless, can be used in city apartments.
Folk remedies for fleas such as vinegar and kerosene are inferior in effectiveness to the above drugs, and their strong smell greatly complicates the entire procedure for processing an apartment.
We process the apartment from fleas
The general sequence of processing an apartment from fleas is as follows:
- A tool is selected from all available, which is optimally suited for price, safety and effectiveness.
- All residents and pets are removed from the apartment.
- All windows are closed.
- The tool treats all surfaces in the apartment, places where fleas and their larvae hide, shelves in cabinets, pantries and closets.
- The room is closed and it is allowed to brew for 3-4 hours.
- The apartment is ventilated and wet cleaning is carried out in it.
When using a specific drug, adjustments may be made to the specified plan.
Sometimes, when there are a lot of fleas in the apartment and at the time of treatment there are many eggs and pupae in it that are more resistant to insecticides, fleas may reappear a few days after treatment.In this case, at the peak of their hatching - 10-14 days after the first treatment - the room should be treated again.
Entrust the fight against fleas to professionals
Finally, you can fight fleas in an apartment with the help of professional exterminators. Their services cost, on average, one and a half to two times more than the cost of household pest control products, but exterminator teams guarantee that fleas will not appear in the room for several months, and they also do the most harmful work for the owner of the apartment.
Before the arrival of exterminators, the apartment is prepared in the same way as before self-treatment. It is important to remember that specialists use very strong and often bad-smelling products - Sinuzan, Diazinon, Tetrix. You need to be prepared for the fact that within a few days after processing the apartment from fleas, a characteristic “aroma” will remain in it.
Important!
Sometimes exterminators prefer to use fairly toxic organophosphorus insecticides to control fleas, for the reason that they have a so-called ovicidal effect - they poison flea eggs and pupae. This is a guarantee that fleas will not appear in the apartment in a few days, although it somewhat complicates the whole procedure.
After the fleas have been expelled from the apartment, it should be thoroughly cleaned in the apartment at least once a week, so that even if parasites accidentally appear, the larvae swarming in the garbage and dust should be destroyed. Together with a pet flea remedy, this measure is usually enough to prevent the re-emergence of parasites in the apartment.
An example of how people suffer from the invasion of fleas in the house
An interesting video: how to choose the right flea remedy for cats and dogs
